Linux Mint Forums

Forum rules
There are no such things as "stupid" questions. However if you think your question is a bit stupid, then this is the right place for you to post it. Please stick to easy to-the-point questions that you feel people can answer fast. For long and complicated questions prefer the other forums within the support section.Before you post please read how to get help

jollyterminus wrote:...is it me or does the "./configure" command not work?

Using Nadia/MATE.

I have a tarball that I have extracted into a folder and when I type "./configure" in the terminal under that directory I get the error:"bash: ./configure: No such file or directory"

Something about your question makes me wonder if you understand that "./configure" is not a built in terminal command. What is happening here is you are trying to execute a file in the current directory named "configure". If that file does not exist bash replies with the error you posted above. If you already know this and it is not what you are asking then please note that I did not mean to insult you!

Since the tarball does not appear to contain a "configure " file the best I can say is follow nanowire's advice.

nanowire wrote:A few things...

1. Do the contents of the tarball actually need to be compiled? Could they be already compiled and in binary format already?

2. Is there a README or INSTALL file? If so read that and see what it says about installing.

3. Check permissions on the files.

4. What are you trying to install? perhaps a list of file contents or a link to the tarball would help us diagnose the problem.

"A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer." -- Bruce Lee

nanders83 wrote:What are the contents of the folder you are in? Does it include a file named configure? Probably not because the error message says it can't find it..

Well that would make sense. I was trying to install Kompozer from the downloaded tarball and you are correct, it does not contain a file named "configure." I didn't know there had to be one, every single tutorial I have read simply starts with "Type the command './configure...' but they never indicate that that is referring to a file, not a command. Now i realize that. Thank you.

1. Do the contents of the tarball actually need to be compiled? Could they be already compiled and in binary format already?

2. Is there a README or INSTALL file? If so read that and see what it says about installing.

3. Check permissions on the files.

4. What are you trying to install? perhaps a list of file contents or a link to the tarball would help us diagnose the problem.

Yes, they needed to be compiles/built. Apparently Kompozer is not in any of the repositories for the MATE edition so I downloaded the tarball to install it like that. Curiously, there is no README or INSTALL file included in the decompressed files.

But, let me just say that I no longer have the problem, after fiddling with the MATE desktop for a couple of days I remembered how much I did not like gnome so I wiped my machine again and installed Maya KDE edition. That did have Kompozer in the repos so i was able to download it and it works fine. But thank you very much for your help!

jollyterminus wrote:...is it me or does the "./configure" command not work?

Using Nadia/MATE.

I have a tarball that I have extracted into a folder and when I type "./configure" in the terminal under that directory I get the error:"bash: ./configure: No such file or directory"

Something about your question makes me wonder if you understand that "./configure" is not a built in terminal command. What is happening here is you are trying to execute a file in the current directory named "configure". If that file does not exist bash replies with the error you posted above. If you already know this and it is not what you are asking then please note that I did not mean to insult you!

Since the tarball does not appear to contain a "configure " file the best I can say is follow nanowire's advice.

No, no insult at all, in fact, just as I had stated above I indeed did not realize that is not a command. That would have saved me a lot of trouble had I known that. But none of the tutorials I read about how to install an app from a tarball bothered to mention that. But now I know and i appreciate that help. I ended up switching to Maya KDE edition and Kompozer was in the repos so I didn't need the tarball installation, but now I know for next time.